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The Psychological Wisdom of ‘Groundhog Day’

They say that if the groundhog sees his shadow on Groundhog Day, there will be another six weeks of winter. The classic movie, “Groundhog Day,” weaves this playful theme into the story of a man emerging from the winter of his own life. The movie is full of psychological insights that can help turn winter into spring in your life as well.

Groundhog Day centers on the character of Phil Connors, a frustrated but self-important television weatherman who must cover the Groundhog Day events for the umpteenth time in his stalled career. Phil is arrogant and needs to be taken down a peg. However, because he resists this change, his life grinds to a halt, symbolized by having to live the same day over and over. Have you ever felt this way in your life? While the scenery and people change, somehow everything seems the same because you have not really changed or grown?

At first Phil attempts to resuscitate his dying life by exploiting other people and situations for his own egocentric gain: e.g., money, women, and reckless thrills. This is not uncommon when you bump up against a lack of meaning or depth in your life. Perhaps, like Phil, you initially add more fuel to your negative patterns rather than give them up. Maybe you have also tried to distract yourself from nagging feelings of emptiness, loneliness, or boredom?

Eventually Phil grows tired of his superficial solutions to his life problems. He sinks into depression and commits suicide over and over. However, after each suicide he finds himself back in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania facing the same dilemma—himself. There is a kernel of wisdom in what Phil is doing. Literal suicide is not the answer, but symbolic death is. Phil needs to go through a death/rebirth process in order to embrace his larger being. Like Phil, sometimes you must go through many deaths before you make the leap of faith to your new life. In Phil’s case this meant giving up his cynical and self-centered attitudes so he could become a more genuinely caring person.

At some point Phil realized that if his life was to be different he needed to be different. The meaning in life was there, but he had to open his eyes to it, and he also had to bring it forth from within himself. Here’s hoping that you too find the spring in your life (and that you don’t have to go to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to do it).